


Bryce versus the FBI

by NYWCgirl



Category: Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: GSW, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Mistaken Identity, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 00:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6543391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter keeps vigil by an injured Neal while they are waiting for help, but is it really Neal?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bryce versus the FBI

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is written for the April challenge of the H/C bingo. The challenge is to use at least two fandoms and at least one prompt. Prompts ‘Undeserved reputation and Major injury’ were used.

“Nooooo….” Peter runs towards Neal, but he can only see the bullet tearing through his CI. Peter pulls his gun out and hides behind a wall. He slowly makes his way towards the corner. Everything in him screams to check on Neal, but it is no use getting shot by some low live criminal in the process, so he cautiously looks around the corner but there is nobody. He runs towards Neal and gulps, there is so much blood. He kneels next to Neal and checks for a pulse. Neal is deathly pale and Peter fears the worst. He concentrates on finding it and finally there it is, Peter sighs in relief. He turns Neal over to check for an exit wound. There isn´t one, he slowly turns Neal back and takes off his jacket, balls it up and pushes down on the wound. Neal hasn´t moved or made a sound during the whole ordeal. Not a good sign.

Peter takes a couple of deep breaths and only now realizes that someone is taking to him.

“Boss? Peter? Answer me, what is going on?”

“Diana! Man down, Neal is shot, I need paramedics, now.”

“On it boss, paramedics are…”

Peter doesn´t hear her finish, because at that exact moment, there is a loud rumpling and almost immediately after an explosion rips through the building.

 

* *  *

 

While the dust is settling, Peter has the feeling he is coughing his lungs out. He looks around in a sort of daze, his ears are making an annoying ringing sound and the dust burns in his eyes.

“Diana?” he calls out, but he can´t hear his own voice. He studies Neal´s still form which is a couple of feet from him, he must have been thrown by the blast. He gingerly crawls towards Neal and can´t keep the grunts because he now realizes that everything hurts. He will have some impressive bruising, that is for sure.

He studies his surroundings, and his blood goes cold when he sees a gun lying not that far from Neal. It isn´t his, so there is only one explanation, Neal had been carrying it. It is not a gun the FBI issues so he must have gotten it somewhere else. Neal, what were you doing? He is going to need to have a serious talk when Neal is better. If Neal is getting better, the longer it takes for the rescue crew to get to them, the slimmer his chances are.

When he reaches Neal, he can see Neal´s eyes fluttering. He calls out to Neal, he can hear his own voice again, although the ringing is still there, he is relieved that he isn´t deaf.

“Neal? Come on, open your eyes.”

Neal regains consciousness and Peter can see that he is studying his surroundings. Eventually he looks down to where Peter is still pressing against the wound. He groans and puts his hand on the wound, and reluctantly, Peter releases his grip.

“You were shot.” Peter feels stupid stating the obvious.

Neal studies Peter´s face and before Peter can react, Neal sits up and has a gun pointing at him. Peter looks in shock at Neal and only now recognizes the gun as his own. “Back away.” Neal groans.

“You are injured, you were shot.” Peter chucks Neal´s strange reaction to shock, but still.

He can see the safety is off, so he backs away without sudden movements.

Neal winces when he slowly gets up, never taking his left hand from the wound and moves away from him. He leaves the room, stumbling over the debris, keeping his eyes on Peter all the time. What shocks Peter more than the gun trained on him, is that there is no recognition in Neal´s eyes, Peter feels like he is staring in the eyes of a stranger.

“Neal, you are injured, where are you going? Let´s wait for help.” He tries one last time.

“Neal?”

Peter can see confusion in Neal´s eyes before he turns and starts running. How the hell can he still run injured like that? Peter immediately goes in pursuit.

Peter has always known that Neal is an agile creature, but this tarts all imagination. He sees Neal leap over a hole in the floor, his hand never leaving his injury. But blood is dripping in a steady stream and Peter knows Neal will collapse sooner rather than later.

As predicted, Neal loses his battle against his injury and he trips before going down. Peter kneels next to him and carefully turns him on his back.

“Neal, come on, don´t do this to me. Stay with me.”

Peter can see Neal is trying to hang on to consciousness but his eyes close while he goes limp.

“Come on Neal, wake up, you need to stay awake.”

He can see that Neal is trying to open his eyes again so he keeps encouraging him. He can see Neal´s lips moving. The moment he presses down on the wound again, Neal stares up at him. His eyes are filled with pain and fear and Peter does his best to reassure Neal, but Neal looks up at him in confusion and tries to get away from him.

“Shh, it´s OK Neal, everything will be OK.”

Peter realizes he has lost his ear piece, but remembers that he has his cell, he calls Diana on speaker to keep his hands free to keep pressure on Neal´s wounds.

“Boss! Are you alright?”

“Yes, I am, but Neal needs medical attention fast.” He can’t go into details with Neal conscious, so he refrains from telling Diana details.

“We are on it boss, paramedics are here with me just outside the building, but we can´t go in while the building is unstable. But are you sure Neal is injured?”

“What? Yeah of course I am sure.”

What kind of stupid question is that? He can see Neal´s eyes studying him, but there is no recognition. He observes Neal, and only now notices that Neal isn´t wearing the same clothes he was when they came over. Neal had been wearing one of Byron´s suits and now he is clad in jeans, a button down and a jacket.

Peter can feel the anger build in him. Once again, Neal has being doing something on the side. He is a fool to trust Neal. Why does he jeopardize his career for Neal over and over again? He needs to stop doing that. He needs to stop considering Neal a friend and treat him like the criminal he is.

A low moan stops his thinking process and he looks down. It is obvious that Neal is in considerable pain and Peter immediately leaves his negative space and focuses his attention back on Neal.

“Hey Neal, it´s OK, rest. Help is on its way.”

Neal closes his eyes and goes limp. Peter checks his pulse to make sure he just passed out. Neal´s breathing is getting shallower, and Peter worries.

He startles when four people enter the room through the windows, via rappel cords. They have easy access as all the windows are blown out by the explosion. They are dressed in black battle gear and they must belong to some tactical team. Before Peter can localize his gun, he feels himself being hit by something. He looks down, seeing a tranquilizing dart sticking out of his shoulder. His vision starts to swim and suddenly everything goes black.

 

* *  *

 

He wakes up and immediately notices he is lying on something soft. He slowly opens his eyes and sees a worried Neal standing next to him.

“Hi Peter, good to see you awake.”

“Neal?” Peter croaks.

Neal walks over to the other side of the bed and suddenly he holds a cup of water with a bendy straw in front of Peter. Water has never tasted better. And now that he thinks about it, Peter feels surprisingly OK.

“Am I dead?”

Neal gives him a strange look.

“Why would you think that?”

Peter has to admit that he hadn´t expected that as an answer. He thinks and tries to organize his thoughts and feelings.

“Well, aren´t you dead?”

“No, obviously I am not dead. Peter, maybe we should call in the doctor.” Neal gives Peter a strange look.

Peter thinks, maybe he has been in a coma and Neal already recuperated from his injuries.

“How long have I been here?”

“Two hours?” Neal guesses, checking his watch.

Now that Peter studies Neal, he can see that he is wearing the suit again that he was wearing earlier today. There is not a speck of dust on him and certainly no blood. His hair is styled as always.

“How did you change so quick? What were you doing in that room? Doesn´t it hurt?”

“Change? Hurt? I am still wearing the same suit I did this morning. Peter, you are worrying me.” Neal makes a move to pick up the nurse call button, but Peter puts his hand over the remote.

“What were you doing there, Neal? You got shot, I saw it myself, you were dressed in jeans and a blue shirt.”

“I don´t know what you are talking about, Peter, I swear. Did you hit your head? Diana told me that you called in paramedics because I was injured. But I was talking to our suspect at the time, and then suddenly all hell broke loose and I had to keep my cover intact so I ran with our suspects. We split up an hour later with the promise of a new meeting.”

Peter looks if he can detect any signs that Neal is spinning him a story, but he can´t. Neal seems sincere. But that doesn´t mean anything of course.

“Why don´t you rest and we will talk later, OK? El will be here soon. Jones went to pick her up and is bringing her over.”

Peter closes his eyes, he is tired of thinking. It doesn´t make sense that Neal is here but he is too tired to figure it out. He falls asleep almost immediately.

 

* *  *

 

Bryce’s awakening is more brutal. He gasps and tries to get up, but he is restrained. He can hear the sirens so he must be in an ambulance. He looks around frantically and sees two men sitting next to him, they aren´t dressed as paramedics but instead they are in all black. Not good.

But as soon as reality sets in, the pain hits him like a sledgehammer and he groans against the pain. He has been shot before, but this is definitely in his top three. What did they do with the federal agent that stayed with him? He wants to think of a plan, but they must have pushed drugs, because he can feel his brain relax and finally everything goes black.

 

* *  *

 

“I swear Peter, I was nowhere near you. I wasn´t shot and I really have no idea what you are talking about.”

Peter scowls at Neal. He was released yesterday after a couple of hours when the doctor was convinced that the drugs had left his system. He went home, hugged El and went to bed.

This morning when he arrived at the office, he called everyone involved into the conference room. Jones tells him that he had contact with Neal at all times; he brought the audio tape on a flash drive to prove it.

Peter asks if there were anomalies in the recording, but Jones tells him that the watch Neal had been wearing during the op had been on at all times.

Jones has to admit that Peter is being paranoid this time. They had eyes and ears on Neal at all times and there is no way that he could have done what Peter is accusing him of. But Jones can also see the hurt and the uncertainty in Peter´s eyes when he talks about the time he was stuck with an injured Neal. They have found blood on the scene and the ERT team is still checking it out.

“Doesn´t anyone thinks it is strange that I was found unconscious?”

“Yes, but the rescue team initially thought you were knocked unconscious by the explosion.”

Jones´s phone chimes and he answers it, confirming some things and hanging up.

“That was ERT, the blood they found is definitely not Neal´s, but they can´t find a DNA match in the databases.”

Neal gives Peter an innocent look as to say, see, I wasn´t there.

Peter sighs and sits down. It all doesn´t make sense.

“You are dismissed. Please carry on the cases you were working on. You, too, Neal, I need a moment.”

The room clears and Peter gets up and walks towards the window. It doesn´t make sense. He knows what he saw. If it wasn´t Neal, than who was it?

 

 


End file.
